Thursday, November 20, 2008

In times like these, I’m in need of some serious comfort. I work in magazines and it’s very grim seeing your industry on a downhill slide. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about a spate of media-industry lay-offs or a publication closing. So to assuage my fears, I’ve been eating lots of pie. Sweet potato pie.

Sweet potato pie is always on our Thanksgiving table—my family prefers it to pumpkin pie, though the two are similar in texture and taste. But sweet potatoes give the custard a bit more heft and are, as the name implies, more naturally sweet than pumpkins.

I asked my grandma for the family recipe but she pointed me in the direction of my Uncle Richard. “Richard makes the best sweet potato pie,” she said. And after years of eating it, I have to agree that indeed he does.

Richard loves his pies, and when my brother got married in September my uncle helped coordinate the marathon pie-baking party that side of the family held. See, my brother had decided that instead of a groom’s cake he wanted a table filled with pies. And so my family’s repertoire was on full display—chocolate, chess, apple, peanut butter and, of course, Uncle Richard’s sweet potato.
When you make a sweet potato pie, the most important thing is the spice. Richard uses the usual suspects such as cinnamon and nutmeg. But he also adds ginger and cloves, which I think add a bit of heat and zing.

Because of obligations, I’m not going to the farm this Thanksgiving; I’ll miss sharing the day with my family. But still, I am so very thankful for all that I have—I am beyond blessed and feel very, very fortunate.

My heart, however, goes out to those who have lost their jobs. I know that a pie won’t put food on the table or a roof over your head, but perhaps, in that moment when you take a bite, it’ll provide a little bit of sweet soft comfort.

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine all ingredients in a mixer or blender. (A mixer will leave a few small delectable chunks of sweet potato.)
3. Pour mixture into two nine-inch pie shells (I use my Grandma’s recipe).
4. Bake 55 minutes.
5. Cool before serving. Garnish with whipped cream as desired. Makes two pies.
Uncle Richard’s note: I really enjoy it cold out of the refrigerator the next day for breakfast.

I made four different sweet potato pies last Thanksgiving, all in an effort to try to duplicate my very favorite one made by Jessie Sculark in Drew, MS. It never happened. I'm definitely going to try your uncle's recipe, but I have to confess, my sweet tooth loves a SPP that's packed with vanilla. Still, I never met a SPP pie I didn't like!

I think we are all in need of some pie eating! My husband works on WS, so he comes home everyday with claims that the world is coming to an end. We can't end the recession, but we can keep the ovens loaded with goodies until it does!

We've been getting a bit tired of pumpkin pie, and I think I'll give your Uncle Richard's recipe a whirl. We're also having apple and chocolate cream (which is a family tradition) and mini mince tarts.

Mike--I made a sweet potato cheesecake last year that was wonderful! The hardest part about cheesecakes is knowing when to take them out of the oven so they don't cracks. But even if they do split on top, you can cover it with sweetened sour cream.

Mares--I haven't had mince tarts in years! I might have to make some of those, too!

Sharon--I'm all for bourbon cream sauce, which I bet would go well with this one, too!

Making my grandmother's pecan, as always. It's required eating on my Thanksgiving. I love that idea of a table full of pies at a wedding, BTW. I love pie so much that I could see doing that instead of the wedding cake too.

I'm making all of the pies for my family's dinner (40 in all). I'm doing the usual pumpkin and pecan, but in addition, a chocolate green chile pecan, a red velvet cake, chocolate chip cookies and a pumpkin roll. Here's the recipe for the chocolate green chile pecan pie:http://blog.nola.com/judywalker/2008/10/hatch_chiles_enrich_pecan_pie.html. Try it. It's amazing. I've already made it twice, one for my family and one for a friend.

This is just what I've been needing. Pumpkin pie is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, but none of my local stores are carrying canned pumpkin this year. As I like to tell myself and others, pumpkin or sweet potatoes make a very nutritious pie - a pie that I can eat for breakfast. The financial news is truly scary, but at least we still have these simple pleasures.

Thank you to you and Uncle Richard for this great recipe. I will try it. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving early with our family "Harvest Dinner" last Sunday. We had homemade pecan, pumpkin and apple pies. I love your blog and your recipes.

Your uncles' SPP sounds great and I think I will add it to my menu. One of the reasons I love the SPP is the fact the nutrition is great and makes the sin of the crust less. I have my Carmel Apple Pecan pie on my menu but I can always make that one later in the season. My hubby is a Buttermilk Pie fan and I just get tired of making it all of the time.

As far as the economy is concerned, we have had a lot of serious down turns in the past and we survived and thrived. Don't give up and remember, women are strongest when times get tough. Keep a song in your heart and prayer on your lips.

Silly question... I don't think I've ever actually made a pie before (I mean, I used to help my nana when I was little, but nothing too involved.) Do you prebake your grandma's pie crust before pouring in the filling?

I got a kick out of what you said about your brother wanting a table full of pies instead of a groom's cake! That sounds like my husband's side of the family---personally, I love to bake cakes, cookies, brownies, etc. but am not much of a pie maker. On the other hand, my Mother-in-law and Sisters-in-law are pie-makers! They make every kind of pie you can imagine for the holidays. I'll never forget the first holiday I celebrated with them! It is so yummy! They have strawberry-ruhbarb pie, apple-ruhbarb pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, various chess pies, lemon pie, coconut pie, chocolate pie, etc., etc. What a feast! Patti

I normally bake a chocolate chile cake for Thanksgiving but this year I was thinking of having a go at my mother's fudge pie recipe. Of course pecan pies made with pecans from my grandparents' pecan trees was a family staple for quite some time and my father is partial to apricot pies so we usually have one of those around this time of year. I've been wanting to try a sweet potato pie so maybe I'll try your recipe and leave the fudge pie for Christmas.

I am making your grandma's pecan pie for sure.The first time in my life that I ever made my own pie crust was with your grandma's recipe!Thank you for that- Homesick Texan! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! You have a great blog!Also making pumpkin pie--and now I might just try my hand at your Uncle Richard's special pie.

I don’t know on how I stumbled upon this cooking blog., All I know is that I’d better check out the archives for a good read. Ha-ha! Just droppin’ to say hi!Oh. You might want to check this out: http://www.technocooks.com for uhm…a different “menu.”

My boy-friend and I hoped to be vacationing in NYC for Thanksgiving but could not spare the time and money to do so, so I am going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, instead... I considered cooking a pumpkin pie but will try your SPP instead! Thanks for all the other Thanksgiving recipes you're sharing on this blog, I will definitely dig in several times (cranberry sauce, gravy...) but I was wondering : what do you stuff the turkey with??? (sorry to ask such a question, but I'm not American, so I'm a first-timer )... Thanks a lot in advance, and happy Thanksgiving!

Tommy--That's awesome! I know my uncle will be happy to hear that you liked the pie so much.

Celine-Marine--I make a corn bread stuffing, though I don't stuff the turkey with it while it's baking--I make it on the side instead (and call it dressing). I reckon I should have posted the recipe, eh?

I made this pie for Thanksgiving and it was a major hit. I put the mixture through a fine sieve before pouring it into the crust, which made for a really smooth filling. It wasn't too sweet, the spices were perfect and everyone raved. Only thing is that I would tent the crust next time as mine got a little burnt around the edges due to the long baking time.

i just wanted to let you know, i found this recipe on foodgawker and made it for thanksgiving...and holy moly it was so good! so good, in fact, that the first one i made (on wednesday) got dug into wednesday night, and i had to make a second one for thanksgiving day! :)thank you for sharing the recipe, it's going to become a tradition around here i think!

Thank you for sharing Uncle Richard's sweet potato pie recipe. It was amazing (I baked two kinds of sweet potatoes for the filling), and will forever replace pumpkin pie at our house. And, of course, it will always be known as Uncle Richard's pie... Sharon

My filling recipe is almost identical to yours, except I add a bit of orange zest, swap allspice for the clove - the ginger is key IMHO, yet most people don't think add it - and use a full can of condensed milk (not evaporated). The condensed milk makes the pie so rich and creamy, with delicious caramel low notes, but it is a much denser pie than with evaporated milk.

I think I am slightly heavier handed with the spice than you, but not by much and pretty much in the same ratio (I cook by instinct and eyeball everything, so it's not exact). Oh, and I added a dash of some Mexican vanilla.

This year I cheated and used a frozen pie shell (gasp!) because I was too exhausted - with very sore arms - after 13 hours of cooking for three days in a row to break out a rolling pin. It wasn't bad, and the fantastic filling more than made up for the lack of good pastry, but I really missed the quality of a homemade pie crust.

I hope your holiday was wonderful, even though you weren't at the farm.

I first found this site when I was a homesick texan living in New York. I have since made the move back to the motherland (Austin) and don't regret it one bit. I enjoy all the comfy, yummy recipes you post. It documents the history of America's southern heritage one morsel at a time. Thanks!

Love the look of that recipe, I'll have to try it, just a couple of questions, last time I tried to mask sweet potato it went into loads of fiberous strands, what did I do wrong? Also you mentioned Peanut Butter pie, that sounds awesome, are you posting a recipe for that anytime soon?

hello, i just made this pie today and it was pretty good! it was my first time having spp and it was my first time making fresh whipped cream! both were quite good. the only problem was i cheated and used a premade frozen crust...which didn't taste very good. i will make my own next time (i've never made a crust before and was intimidated by this fact) and i expect the pie to be even better! thanks for sharing!

We're so glad we found Uncle Richard's sweet tater pie, this has become our family's favorite pie recipe. One of our local stores had sweet potatoes on sale, I bought enough to make two, one for us and one for a friend.Thanks Uncle Richard :-)

Un freakin real!!!!!! We had this pie for dinner tonight and those 2 pies disappeared Fast! I was expecting that pumpkin pie taste(supermarket pumpkin pie taste to be exact) but what I tasted was absolutely amazing. And the cream was very good with just the right amount of ginger. I was born in Richardson near Dallas and now live near San Fransisco and miss those great recipes. Great blog and thank you for your hard work. Jeff

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